... LP, Vinyl record album

Very weird soundtrack to this spooky 70s film starring Peter Boyle! Bobby Scott did the score, and it's hipper than most of his other stuff – with a mixture of jazz, groovy, and straight orchestral scoring. Jerry Butler sings vocals on the tracks "Where Are You Going?" and "You Can Fly", which is a killer 11 minute workout with hard soulful drums, a tight driving groove, and lots of funky changes! Exuma sings on the cut "You Don't Know What's Going On", and other tunes include "Compton's Hangout", "The Expiration Of Frank", and "Send The Hippies To Hell". LP, Vinyl record album

Ouch – what a cover! The image is so graphic, it makes the grooves on the record sound tame by comparison! Yet given that the soundtrack's done by Nico Fidenco – well-known for his sexy work of the 70s – there's plenty of great stuff going on here – a mix of Italian and horror modes – all quite fitting, given that the film features a horny zombie! Keyboards are great – and sometimes have these cool moogy touches that glide along nicely – slow-stepping in that slinky, sexy, Euro erotic way that you'd expect from Fidenco. Other modes are slightly spookier, yet usually with an undercurrent of whimsy – to keep in line with the tongue-in-cheek plotline – and the CD reissue features 18 tracks from the film, all remastered nicely! CD

Groovy soundtrack for this 60's international intrique film starring a young Horst Bucholz. Georges Garvarentz wrote and directed the music, with the sort of flair that he brings to the best of projects like these. The stuff's not as funky as his 70's stuff, but it's got a lot of nice moments, with good spy and crime themes to them. Tracks include "Fight At The Turkish Bath", "Bulldozer Leads The Dance", "Surprise Depot", "Man With The Steel Hand", and "Chase On The Calatma Bridge". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing sounds from Polish composer Andrzej Korzynski – penned for a legendary horror film from the early 80s! The movie goes way beyond typical grit and gore – with a surreal bent that's made it the stuff of much discussion over the years – and Korzynski's music definitely lives up to the spirit of the images on the screen – mixing 80s electronics with offbeat strings, odd percussion, and other compelling bits – often used in very short songs that shift often throughout the course of the album – easily making the record one of the most playful we've ever heard from Finders Keepers – yet also one of the darkest too! A few sweet keyboard melodies offset some of the spookiness in a nice way – and titles include "Helen Has Green Eyes", "Opetanie 1", "The Night The Screaming Stops", "Blue Ford B AZ6", "Heinrick's Demise", "Mark Looks In The Fridge", "What Is It", and "Closely Observed Anna". LP, Vinyl record album

An early pairing of composer Andrzej Korzynski and director Andrzej Zulawski – a Polish duo who show that groovy vampire films aren't just the stuff of the southern European scene in the 70s! Korzynski's music for the movie is really wonderful – starting with a wicked fuzzy funky theme that feels like it's lifted right out of Vampyros Lesbos – and followed by other groovy tracks that are often heavy on electric bass at the bottom – used to set a scary mood on the spookier numbers, and create an upbeat groove on the swinging ones! This limited 10" release only sports 9 tracks, but they're all pretty great – and the whole thing is almost like a condensation of the best elements you'd find in much longer soundtracks with a lot of filler in between. Titles include the main title theme and reprise, "Tango", "Dworek", "Lapanka", "Szpital" (parts 1 and 2), "Na Strychu", and "W Instyucie". LP, Vinyl record album

Henry Mancini's second album of stuff for the Peter Gunn TV show, and arguably better than the first one! The album's straight-ahead crime jazz – performed by a great set of players that includes Plas Johnson, Shelly Manne, Ted Nash, Paul Horn, and other west coasters. Tracks include "My Manne Shelly", "Timothy", "Goofin At The Coffee House", "Odd Ball", "Walkin' Bass", and "Spook!". LP, Vinyl record album

Curtis Mayfield's lasting classic – and an album that the world will remember forever! Apart from being his hugely successful entry into the blacksploitation soundtrack field, this album's also a monster set of grooves that includes some of Curtis' funkiest work ever – a record that works as well as a 70s soul album as it does a hip action film score! The track list alone reads as a who's who of 70s funk – filled with gems that include "Pusherman", "Freddie's Dead", "Little Child Runnin' Wild", "Give Me Your Love", and "Superfly" – and the rest of the set is equally great, essential listening throughout! Plus, this set also features a whole bonus CD – one that brings together extra tracks, unreleased cuts, alternate versions, instrumental versions, and even some cool radio promotional spots! with the "Check Out Your Mind" instrumental studio jam, the full-length version of the instrumental "Junkie Chase", the demo version of "Ghetto Child", and lots more! Great stuff – and in a lovely fold-out package, with the same foldover die-cut cover of the original LP! (Soul, Soundtracks) CD

Ennio Morricone's beautiful score to one of the beautifully shot films of the 70s, or all time, really – Terrence Malick's legendary Days Of Heaven! It's gorgeous stuff, from Morricone's haunting main theme and his more classically enthralling sounds, as well as the rootsy folk guitar by Leo Kottke and and equally swampy fiddle dance number by Doug Kershaw. LP, Vinyl record album

A really fantastic score from Ennio Morricone – maybe better this time around than the images on the screen for some of his other westerns of the period – more proof that the maestro was always willing to rise above, and give his best no matter what the setting! / Ennio Morricone's beautiful score to one of the beautifully shot films of the 70s, or all time, really – Terrence Malick's legendary Days Of Heaven – the original 1978 soundtrack album and Morricone's cues programmed separately on one disc plus a bonus disc of extended score material and more bonus tracks! It's gorgeous stuff, from Morricone's haunting "Main Theme" and his more classically enthralling sounds, as well as the rootsy folk guitar by Leo Kottke and and equally swampy fiddle dance number by Doug Kershaw. CD

Some choice soundtrack work from Jack Nitzsche's prime 70s period, with a handful other tracks by Howlin' Wolf, Captain Beefhaeart and Ike & Tina Turner. For the most part the soundtrack is bluesy rootsy stuff, to go along with the slant of the film, but there is a great funky break on the intro to "Zeke, Jerry & Smokie". Also includes "Coke Machine", "FBI", "Party", and "Easy Listening". LP, Vinyl record album

Prince got tagged to do the music for the big breakout Batman film from Tim Burton – and the performances here are definitely not the stuff of The Dark Night – and in fact, maybe nothing like you'd expect from Batman at all – even though the music does make a nod or two towards the cowled crusader with some samples! It's clear that Prince just had a fun time putting the whole thing together – and like many other star soundtracks from the 90s, the feel of the music is very much its own thing – which is probably why the record was such a hit, and maybe has had a lot more endurance than the film! Titles include "The Future", "Electric Chair", "Vicki Waiting", "Partyman", "Scandalous", and "Batdance". (Soul, Soundtracks) CD

A beautiful soundtrack to the dark British comedy of the same name – starring a young Michael Caine! You might expect it to be a bit schmaltzy, but it's pure jazz all the way through, and features strong inside playing by Rollins over lively orchestrations by Oliver Nelson – filled with moody colors, great changes, and a vibrant sense of energy that's far deeper than the actual film! The group includes Phil Woods, Kenny Burrell, and J.J. Johnson, and they swing hard on all tracks. Titles include the 10 minute workout of "Alfie's Theme", plus a shorter "Differently" version" – plus "On Impulse", "Transition Theme", and "He's Younger Than You". Nice stuff throughout, and much more of a jazz album than a soundtrack! (Jazz, Soundtracks) CD

A beautiful soundtrack to the dark British comedy of the same name – starring a young Michael Caine! You might expect it to be a bit schmaltzy, but it's pure jazz all the way through, and features strong inside playing by Rollins over lively orchestrations by Oliver Nelson – filled with moody colors, great changes, and a vibrant sense of energy that's far deeper than the actual film! The group includes Phil Woods, Kenny Burrell, and J.J. Johnson, and they swing hard on all tracks. Titles include the 10 minute workout of "Alfie's Theme", plus a shorter "Differently" version" – plus "On Impulse", "Transition Theme", and "He's Younger Than You". Nice stuff throughout, and much more of a jazz album than a soundtrack! (Jazz, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

A gem of a record from the legendary Nino Rota – one of his best scores for director Federico Fellini – a bit later than some of their 60s classics, but equally great! The music is filled with Rota's trademark interweaving of dominant themes and lighter moments – the kind of tight chamber scoring that makes his compositions work so well – bouncey, but never silly, moody, but never too serious. The narrative takes Rota to more pan-historic territory, but his approach here is similar to Fellini films set in contemporary Rome – and dominant instrumentation includes bits of accordion, piano, horns, and gentle strings. Wonderful stuff all around – with loads of short little tracks that have some nice hooks – titles that include "La Fogaraccia", "La Gradisca E Il Principe", "Gary Cooper", "Lo Struscio", "Amarcord", and "Ti Ricordi Siboney". LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderfully groovy stuff – and one of the best soundtracks ever by the great Italian composer Armando Trovajoli! The record has a very similar feel to his legendary Seven Golden Men soundtrack – with a groovy swinging jazz vocal group (I Cantori Moderni) over jazzy riffing and groovin – on upbeat tunes that are very cool, with a mod 60s style throughout! The whole thing swings mightily – and kind of feels like what might have happened if the Swingle Singers ever recorded with Lalo Schifrin – his best jazz-infused instrumentation, and their wonderfully dynamic vocal approach. Titles include "The Getaway", "Seven Times Blues", "The Big Brain", "Jail", and "Seven Times Seven". LP, Vinyl record album

The great folks at Motor Music in Germany have compiled a bunch of groovy tracks from swingin' films from the late 60's, and patched them together into a really cool package with excellent liner notes for the fan of soundtrack stuff and mod 60's music. Excellent selection, with a real emphasis towards hard to find tracks, like Harpers Bizarre's "Malibu U" (the theme to a short lived TV show about a beach school), Mark Lindsay's "Somethin' Big" (a great lost Bacharach track), the theme to The Party, and loads more groovy vocal and instrumental tracks! (Funky Compilations, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album